AR-15 popularity

Dave, at the risk of being a one note Charlie, Article 1 Section 8 describes the missions of the militia. Properly read (and I know this is a stretch for some people), Miller already lays out a "militia use test." That's why the supes remanded the case (Miller) back to trial court to find on the utility of a short-barreled shotgun as a "militia" arm. Weapons suitable for militia use (like the AR, and it's meaner full auto cousin) "should" be protected under this test.

Interesting discussions have been taking place regarding the so-called transferable machine guns and the "dangerous and unusual" language from Heller. There are believed to be about 177,000 transferable machine guns in the United States. The number would be higher, and therefore they would be less unusual, if it were not for 1) the fact that Making and Transfer have been taxed at $200 a pop since 1934, and 2) the Making of new transferable machine guns has been outright banned since 1986.

Those judges are just a bunch of pussies. They're afraid of big scary guns and probably big scary spiders.

I'm sure most of you are aware that both the IRS and the Dept. of Education both requested bids for Remington 870 shotguns with 14inch barrels this year. I guess short barreled shotguns are not that unusual and if they were dangerous, the Dept of Ed sure would not buy them. I have to pay tax stamps for mine. They sit in the safe most of the time and haven't hurt anyone. Since I have several and they haven't hurt a sole, I would say that they are neither unusual or dangerous.

Well, the whole NFA debate is boiling down to whether the government has the authority to tax a "right." Like the right to free speech, the right to vote, etc. If the 2nd Amendment protects a right, does the government have the authority to tax it? The only Second Amendment NFA case to ever reach the Supreme Court was Miller, and Miller was decided before most of the great rights cases and the development of what is now considered fundamental jurisprudence about the rights protected by the Bill of Rights.

The next few years will be really interesting. If I had a lot of free time, I would file a Form 1 for a new machine gun, and submit my $200 Making tax. When that was denied, I would challenge the denial. Just for giggles, I would also challenge the right of the government to force me to pay the tax.

It's approximately 182k transferable machine guns but there are thought to be at least that many that were not registered under the '68 amnesty.

177,000 or 182,000. Whatever. I've seen numbers in that ballpark from several sources.

The really sad thing is that our guess is probably as good as the ATFs guess as to how many transferable machineguns are out there.